Ontario Government Goes After Game Developers - In a Good Way
Well, at least some politicians love gamers...
Following similar efforts by Quebec and British Columbia to attract game developers, the government of Ontario recently announced that it was boosting its Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit to 30% for small businesses in the provincial budget.
Also announced was an entertainment and creative partnerships fund, which puts over CDN$45 million towards skills development, product development and marketing within the entertainment industry.
Ontario's entertainment industry is the 3rd largest after those of California and New York. With PricewaterhouseCoopers predicting that video games will be the biggest world-wide growth market in entertainment over the next 4 years, Ontario wants to make sure that it doesn't miss the boat.
Smart.
Video game companies which already have a presence in Ontario include Rockstar Toronto (The Warriors
), Pseudo Interactive (Full Auto
), Digital Extremes (Unreal series
), and Silicon Knights (Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
).
In 2005 Ontario enacted legislation to allow the its Film Review Board to adopt ESRB ratings as a template, and restrict the sale of "M" and "AO" games to minors.
-Reporting from Saskatchewan, Canada, GP North American Correspondent Colin McInnes (aka Jabrwock)